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_______________POPULATION CHANGES 1947
SECTION VI
Assimilation of Refugees
A. The Problem
At the beginning of 1947 the influx of refugees ended. The Mill-
tary Governments of the U.S. and U.K. Zones stopped organised population
transfers Into their zones because of the deterioration of the housing and
food situation caused by the spontaneous influx in 1946.
Refugee assimilation began largely in 1947. In view of the number
of Immigrants and the poor economic situation in the U.S. Zone any develop-
ments in assimilation may be regarded as progress. What has been achieved
is
due in part to the perseverence and self-help of the expellees, and in part
to the activity of the German refugee agencies which were forced to compromise
between what should and what could be done.
In the course of 1945 all three Laender of the Zone issued emergency
regulations to solve the pressing legal and administrative problems arising
from the immigration of expellees. In order to provide uniform regulations
for refugees throughout the U.S Zone, the Refugee Committee of the Laenderrat
prepared a Refugee Law (Fluechtlingsgesets) which was promulgated in February
1947. The general purpose of the law which deals with naturalization, social
assistance, housing and related fields, was to assist assimilation and to
avoid discrimination against expellees. Administrative techniques were estab-
lished by implementing ordinances. Since practically all areas of social,
political and economic life are affected by assimilation of expellees, many
amendments in various existing laws and regulations must still be made to
make
assimilation possible.Xi
In all three Laender special agencies (Fluechtlingsverraltungen) are
handling refugee and expellee problems, with partial participation by the
refu-
gees and expellees themselves.' The basic need is to give then such a part
in
the economic system as to make them producers as well as consumers. economic
assimilation is the prerequisite of social, political and cultural assimilation.
B. Imuloyment
The problem of providing productive employment varies among social
groups. The activity of independent producers such as handicraft workers
and
J/ As an example, denazification may be cited. Unintentionally, existing
de-
nazification regulations involve discrimination against expellees. According
to these regulations, workers in handicraft shops with less than ten employees
are allowed to continue work during the process of denazification. Jew licenses,
however, are issued only after denazification. As all refugee handicraft
work-
ers must get now licenses, they are actually discriminated against in comparison
with native handicraft workers of the same degree of political iherimination.
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May 1948